you got the smartest man on Earth, Mr. Orange telling American to drill drill drill while American is losing its edge on EV.
The important thing to always realize is that Trump optimizes for one thing only: himself. Everyone else doesn't matter.
BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
161–170 of 308 posts
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#162~4 years ago my wife and I planned on buying one EV and one ICE car purely as a hedge on both. We bought the EV first. After ~1mo of driving it we changed our plans and went for 2 EVs. Even driving long distance (we've made a ~3hr drive around every 10 days for the last 4 years), the convenience factor of EVs has outweighed gas. That doubled once we got solar - there's just something magical about having the operatin…
Totally agree. We only dipped our toe into a small little cheap ev for shorter journeys in January. Looked at getting a charger fitted, then saw great appeal in a Powerwall+Solar…
I’m lucky with roof size and direction - we could get 9kw of panels on. The sun’s been shining nicely the last few days in the UK and it’s honestly beyond magical to see it all working so beautifully, even getting 100w at 6:40 this morning! This week we’ve barely used the grid at all, powering the whole house, car & heating our hot water through the day, all from the roof at no ongoing cost! It was a big investment, but it really does feel like one of the best - it’s giving us a real degree of independence and instant and massive bill reductions.
So I have the exact same feeling! Getting into an ICE car now feels like taking a massive step backwards in so many ways.
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
China and increasingly India are building very affordable EVs. You can get this guy for $7700, or full-featured models from $10,000: https://driveauthority.com/cheapest-ev-car-in-china/ All you really need is a political snap of the fingers to remove tariffs, so they can start selling them in the US. Of course, there is absolutely no way this will happen with the current administration.
All the EV tariffs are staying place past the end of the Trump administration because protectionism is now bipartisan.
> All the EV tariffs are staying place past the end of the Trump administration because protectionism is now bipartisan.
Anything Trump supported will continue to be seen as hot garbage after he is removed from office. There is no appetite for protectionism when it has hurt rather than benefitted the American economy.
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#164If one removed the country names and just looked at where investment (focus, planning, and money) was, we would see two greatly different pictures. One country is disincentivizing or even blocking renewable energy production, rolling back climate protection measures, trying to revitalize the coal industry, slashing investment in scientific research of all kinds, demonizing higher education, and spending vast and rapi…
> in two decades While I agree with your overall point, I'm reminded of "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent" here. The US is a huge economy with a massive military infrastructure. I don't think it's fading to fallen empire status that quickly.
Hopefully. With that said, when a country makes too many poor decisions, independently or relative to other countries, it'll eventually bite them in the butt.
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
See those big T-shaped things in the picture? Those are the charging stations that BYD (or someone) is going to need to build to see those charging speeds. I'm not saying it can't be done, but as one with an 800V Hyundai that has theoretical charging speed of 350kW, don't expect to just plug in at Electrify America and be done in 5 minutes. (Because the highest I've seen on the Hyundai was 243kW, and I've seen that o…
On the other hand, 5-minute charging is definitely a luxury thing: most charging is going to be at home, a decent bunch will be destination charging, people doing long trips generally don't mind having the car charge for 30 minutes while they eat dinner in a roadside restaurant, and only a handful of people are insane enough to drive well over 10 hours at a time with only a single 5-minute break. In practice I bet 5-…
There are times when I wished our Ioniq 5 charged more slowly, like when I want to grab a bite. On a good day, back to 80% in 15 minutes, with a 10 minute grace period before the per-minute charges kick in, and there's barely time to sit and eat the meal.
But one thing 5 minute charging would improve is throughput. We're in the middle of a house remodel, and no room in the garage at the moment for the car to get near the charger. So we've been charging at public chargers a lot, and in the three or four times I've hit a public charger recently, I've had to wait on another car to unplug about half the time. Granted, this is the Seattle area where you can't swing a golf club without hitting an EV, but I've had the same problem on road trips, too.
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#166How much many more wars over gas or oil do we need to finally just take the energy that (for the most part) is available locally and renewable?! The petrol era is coming to an end. Our current administration might desperately want to remain a petrol state (for reasons that escape me), but it will only delay the inevitable. The EU is not much better either. The writing has been on the wall, and even since the Russian…
> The EU is not much better either.
the share of renewables of the EU at ~55% of net energy generation is almost twice as high as China's or America's, only Latin America fairs better. Germany essentially front ran this industry 20 years ago. Although as usual it turns out better to be second than first a bit of credit here please.
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I 100% understand that nothing will be done on the federal level. But california is big enough to make things moving without any federal level law. For example, what about: - no sales taxes on new EV sales - free registration for 5 years - free bridge tolls for 5 years That might convince some of these companies to start making EVs again.
They’ll make up the lost revenue by additional taxes on the common people?
I do not know. It is all about priorities.
Raise taxes on gas? Put extra taxes on sell ICE vehicles? Increase registration fees for ICE vehicles? (In short - ICE sales will paying for money lost via EV sales)
I’m not saying it will be easy. I’m saying that if we really want EVs to succeed we can do it.
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#168Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#169I'm in Shenzhen currently. Do you know how quiet the city is, even during rush hour? It's amazing. All because almost every car is electric. Even the damn scooters. It'd actually be enjoyable to be outdoor in downtown if they fixed the air pollution… (some of which of course powers these cars… for now.)
EVs are only quiet when driving very slowly. At about 50 km/h (30 mph) they are pretty much the same as ICE cars.
What's the general speed limit where you are?
Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers
#170If one removed the country names and just looked at where investment (focus, planning, and money) was, we would see two greatly different pictures. One country is disincentivizing or even blocking renewable energy production, rolling back climate protection measures, trying to revitalize the coal industry, slashing investment in scientific research of all kinds, demonizing higher education, and spending vast and rapi…
> If one removed the country names and just looked at where investment (focus, planning, and money) was, we would see two greatly different pictures.
> ...
> The difference in these approaches will be obvious in a decade, and in two decades one of the two countries will be just another chapter in a book about the rise and fall of empires.
The interesting question is: why. I'd say the US ultimately will be judged to be another victim of the "shock doctrine" (in its case, the China Shock). In other words (at least in a democracy): letting the economists and libertarians run wild with the economy will create a backlash that will ultimately weaken it.
The supposedly smart people in charge needed to pay less attention to their pet theories, and way more attention to the common people. They didn't, and this is the result.